Social care has been given an £800m boost in today’s Budget after chancellor Philip Hammond said he recognised the ‘immediate pressures’ local authorities were facing.
Mr Hammond announced £650m grant funding for adult social care in 2019/20, £55m extra for the Disabled Facilities Grant in 2018/19 and £84m over the next five years for up to 20 councils with ‘high or rising numbers of children in care’.
The money comes on top of a £240m winter cash boost for adult social care announced at the Conservative Party conference.
President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), Glen Garrod, said the money was a ‘step in the right direction’ but ‘still far short of the £2.35bn ADASS identified would be needed for social care to stand still in 2019/20’.
Mr Garrod said: ‘This Budget has failed to provide the long-term funding solution that social care desperately needs and while the extra investment is welcome the need for that long-term approach has never been more urgent.’
Shadow local government secretary, Andrew Gwynne, described the £84m for children’s services as a ‘drop in the ocean to councils that are struggling’.
Mr Hammond said the money for social care would allow improvements to be made in the short-term before longer-term decisions are taken in next spring’s Spending Review.
However, there was no further news on the long-awaited social care Green Paper, which is understood to have been delayed until December.
